到着 Arrival

MARCH 11 & 12, 2008

It’s a long ride. There is no way around it. 18 hours travel time, and at least 14 of those in the air. It’s a long ride. It started at 8 AM on March 11th and ended at 5:45 PM on the 12th - local time. With all the time zones, who knows what the actual time was. And you’re not supposed to think about that anyway. We may have slept for 2 hours at the most, but it was very difficult with no leg room and a plane FULL of children and many of them crying.

One of my old students, Tomomi, met us at the airport in Osaka and took us to our hotel. We had a map. We thought we’d be okay. If Tomomi hadn’t met us, we might still be looking for our hotel. We dropped off our stuff and off to お好み焼 (okonomiyaki) for dinner. I had been dreaming about okonomiyaki for 6 years - and Tomomi remembered me talking about it. Sweet girl! The hotel was pretty nice - quiet considering its location and a decent amount of space for Japan. And a WICKED bathtub. The best one of the trip. :)

At this point we were feeling a mixture of exhaustion and extreme excitement. Everything was new and different and I think we were both looking for familiar sights and sounds. (I know I was!)

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